Ford announced yesterday that it was selling most of its stake in Mazda. This is a shame for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, because Ford has invested heavily in turning Mazda around from a losing automotive also-ran, to a stunning success. Mazda now has a competitive array of attractive vehicles and owns the segment of Asian "sporty" vehicles.
Second, the timing is bad. The shares are worth less than they were last year, for instance. Sadly, this is a good way for Ford to raise much needed cash, and is a smart move right now. It also reinforces the view that Ford is a far more visionary company than GM. Having this ace in the hole may be the difference between perishing and surviving, even is it is being sold cheaply.
Thirdly, Mazda has arguably benefited from the Ford stake in it's business, far more than Ford ever did. Ford vehicles serve as basis for several Mazda vehicles: the Tribute is a Ford Escape, The Mazda pickup is based on the Ford Ranger and the snazzy CX-9 is based on a Volvo platform, as is the hugely successful Mazda 3.
The question that comes to my mind, however, is how come Ford made such a huge success with Mazda, but failed to learn form this exercise? Perhaps it was because Mazda is not a family enterprise, and the experts were allowed to run it - and save it. Ford has shown signs that it is willing to remove the family from every day running of the business but the question is, is it too little too late? Time will tell, but this blogger is still confident that Ford is in the best shape of the not-so-big three to weather this storm.
First and foremost, because Ford has invested heavily in turning Mazda around from a losing automotive also-ran, to a stunning success. Mazda now has a competitive array of attractive vehicles and owns the segment of Asian "sporty" vehicles.
Second, the timing is bad. The shares are worth less than they were last year, for instance. Sadly, this is a good way for Ford to raise much needed cash, and is a smart move right now. It also reinforces the view that Ford is a far more visionary company than GM. Having this ace in the hole may be the difference between perishing and surviving, even is it is being sold cheaply.
Thirdly, Mazda has arguably benefited from the Ford stake in it's business, far more than Ford ever did. Ford vehicles serve as basis for several Mazda vehicles: the Tribute is a Ford Escape, The Mazda pickup is based on the Ford Ranger and the snazzy CX-9 is based on a Volvo platform, as is the hugely successful Mazda 3.
The question that comes to my mind, however, is how come Ford made such a huge success with Mazda, but failed to learn form this exercise? Perhaps it was because Mazda is not a family enterprise, and the experts were allowed to run it - and save it. Ford has shown signs that it is willing to remove the family from every day running of the business but the question is, is it too little too late? Time will tell, but this blogger is still confident that Ford is in the best shape of the not-so-big three to weather this storm.
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